to offer that Answer to his Question And more to entangle the Matter he propounds a New Question demanding If it were an Extasie what was the Nature of that Extasie I Reply I pretend not to be able to tell him the Nature of any Extasie Trance or Vision which may happen to Men because I suppose them to be super-humane Actions inexplicable from the known or common Principles of Humane Nature And therefore without farther Answer to his Question about the Nature of an Exâ—asie I profess to Believe that the Answer before given viz. That St. Paul was in a Trance at that time is enough notwithstanding his saying That it is not enough and that it will pass for a good Answer and Solution of his first Question upon which all the rest depends I do not pretend to make such Interpretations of difficult Scriptures as are likely to satisfie all Perusers but count it enough if thereupon I can satisfie my own Understanding As to my best Judgment I have done upon this Text without being afraid of Mens Censures of losing the Meaning of such a Dark Scripture instead of Interpreting it Mr. W. proceeds to say Till I hear a better Sense given of this Text of St. Paul than I have here given of it I will conclude from hence that the Apostle Paul doth imply that his Soul and so all other Mens Souls are whil'st in the Body of such a nature as may be seperated from the Body To this I Reply Our Author hath Power to take this Text of St. Paul in what Sense he pleases or thinks most reasonable as all other Readers may do and may thence Infer and Conclude as their Judgments or Affections or Prepossessions shall perswade them But I profess my self to conceive they build upon sandy Ground who draw that Inference from the Relation of St. Paul's Trance or any other Text quoted to prove Mr. W's Third Proposition That the Soul can subsist in a State of Seperation from the Body Because I judge the Evidences by me produced and my Constructions upon his Texts do more clearly prove the contrary Mr. W's Fourth Proposition is that the Scriptures affirm That when the Body dies the Soul is actually seperated from it In Proof of which he quotes Eccl. 12.7 Then shall the dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God that gave it Upon which he says It is most clear that by Dust is here meant the Body and by Spirit the Soul of Life in Man In which Construction I do not much differ from him but do easily Agree That by Dust here is meant the Body and that by Spirit is intended the Spirit of Life in Man And thereupon I Observe That these Words of Solomon are a single and transient Expression concerning a Subject not mention'd in the rest of the Chapter either before or after and without a particular Occasion given or offer'd to speak of the State of Souls after Death and seems to have something of a Chance in the delivery of it And as I find no Introduction to this Expression nor Occasion given to speak of a Rational or Intelligent Soul in Man so I do not perceive that they do either mention or intend the Spirit of Man to be such a Soul as Mr. W. pretends it to be Solomon was here treating concerning the Decays of Man's Life and recounts by what degrees Death makes its Approaches till at last it prevails over the Person and then the Dust returns to the Earth as it was and the Spirit returns to God who gave it And the Question upon this Text seems to be what is meant by the Term of the Spirit and what is meant of its Return to God who gave it Our Author says That by the Spirit is intended the Soul of Life And I think I differ not far from him when I say That by the Word Spirit is intended the Spirit of Life We know that Solomon had a careful Education under a pious Father and was endued with a strong Inclination to search out the Natures of Things and thence we may certainly Conclude that he had carefully perused the Patriarchal Book of Genesis and the other Mosaical Writings and there had found written Gen. 9.4 Flesh with the Life thereof which is the Blood thereof shall ye not eat and surely the Blood of their Lives will I require at the hand of every Beast will I require it and at the hand of Man at the hand of every Man's Brother will I require the Life of Man Whoso sheddeth Man's Blood by Man shall his Blood be shed for in the Image of God made he Man Also Deut. 12.23 Thou mayest kill of thy Herd and of thy Flock in any of thy Gates only be sure that thou eat not the Blood for the Blood is the Life and thou mayest not eat the Life with the Flesh And Moses says cause that was the Life of the Creature There hath before been quoted God's breathing the Breath of Life into Adam's Nostrils and the breathing the Breath of Life into Adam's Nostrils and the breathing a like Breath into the Persons raised out of Ezekiel's dry Bones which caused Life in them all Gen. 6.7 God says I will destroy Man whom I have created from the face of the Earâ—h both man and beast Chap. 7.22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of life upon the dry land dyed in the flood both Man and Beast were suffocated and drowned in the Waters of the Flood by stopping those Passages through which this Breath of Life should other ways have enter'd Dan 5 23. Thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold but the God in whose hand thy breath is thou hast not glorified Intending God in whose hand thy Life is such a Life as through the Power of God is produced and maintained by Breath and Breathing These Quotations seem to prove that the Spirit of Life in Man is a Compositum of Parts as well as his Body and that the Composition of such Spirit of Life required is of Blood and Breath The Blood and Humours of their Bodies and their Spirits are absolutely necessary for the Life of Man and Beast by maintaining and nourishing the glowing and yet lambent Flame of Life which acts their Organical Bodies and causes a continual Circulation of their Blood to that Purpose and no less necessary for the producing and maintaining of Life is that Breath which God first breathed into Adam and since hath communicated and continued to all his Posterity which have been procreated from that Time to this There passes a Principle of Life in Semine which by Fimentation Fermentation and Coagulation in loco idoneo arrives in its appointed time to a Vegetation and perhaps lives without Breath or Breathing or with very little Assistance thereof until Nature drive it forth into the open Air where after it hath once taken Breath it can by no means be kept alive for many Moments
saying any more to it P. 171. Sixthly He objects against his own Opinion that the Scriptures make frequent mention of Rewards and Punishments to be given at the day of Judgment but make no mention of such Recompences to be given soon after Death or between that and the Resurrection This I own to be a very strong Objection against Mr. W's Opinion and do intend to make it one of mine which I mean to deliver at the end of his Catalogue of Objections and there further to consider his Answer to it P. 172. Seventhly Mr. W. objects against himself If the Souls of Men pass their Tryal as soon as their Bodies are dead what needs any other Day of Judgment will Christ try Men after Sentence This I think to be a strong Objection and therefore I mean to repeat it again and there to consider his Answer P. 175. Eighthly He objects against himself When Christ which is our Life shall appear then shall wâ— appear with him in Glory I purpose to add this Text to others which I mean to quote against his Opinion afterwards and there to consider his Answer P. 177. A Ninth Objection which he raises against himself is from 2 Tim. 4.8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Glory This I think to be a strong Objection fit to be again repeated and there his Answer shall be considered P. 179. His Tenth Objection is taken from King Hezekiah's Prayer in Isaiah This I think to be strong and therefore to be repeated and his Answer to be there considered P. 181. His Eleventh Objection from Eccles 9.5 The Dead know not any thing seems strong and therefore again to be repeated and his Answer there considered P. 182. Twelfthly Mr. W. objects against himself the words of David Psalm 7.1 2. Save me least my Enemy tear my Soul like a Lyon Here I think is the same intent as if David had said least he tear me in pieces like a Lyon putting here the word Soul to signifie Person Therefore I think this Objection to be very weak and as such I leave it P. 183. Mr. W. takes his Thirteenth Objection from 1 Cor. 15.18 If the Dead rise not then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ are perished This Text and Chapter makes a very strong Objection against Mr. W's Opinion and therefore it shall be hereafter repeated and his Answer there considered P. 187. Mr. W's Fourteenth Objection is raised from 1 Tim. 6.16 God only hath Immortality dwelling in Light I think this to be a very weak Objection against Mr. W's Opinion and therefore I pass it over without any further Consideration In this Examination of Mr. W's Fourteen Objections we have found one half or seven of them to be of small force for the overthrowing Mr. W's Opinion and I observe that in his propounding divers of the other seven which are strong against him he doth it in such manner as their strength seems to be much impaired by his manner of delivering them and therefore I design to frame another series of Objections against his Opinion and to place amongst them The Seventh Objection of Mr. W's which I approve and to consider therein the Answers which he hath given to them not yet meaning to follow Mr. W's order of propounding them but I intend to offer all my Objections taken from Scripture according to the several times wherein they were delivered First I object against Mr. W's Opinion from Gen. 9.4 Flesh with the Life thereof which is the Blood thereof shall you not eat and surely your Blood of your Lives will I require at the Hand of every Beast will I require it and at the hand of Man at the Hand of every Man's Brother will I require the Life of Man who so sheddeth Man's Blood by Man shall his Blood be shed for in the Image of God made he Man It seems to appear from the words of this Text that the Terms Blood and Life have a convercibility one with another so as no Blood no Life and the shedding of Man's Blood is the killing of him and it is therefore made a Crime of the highest Nature because the shedding of Man's Blood destroys the Image of God wherein Man was made Whence I conceive Man to be God's Image in his whole Person whose Blood may be shed and not only in a particular part of him which Mr. W. maintains must be his Soul The words of the Text say That the Blood of the Creature is the Life thereof and Experiences convinces that all things that have Life have a sort of Spirit for the maintaining thereof as Grass Herbs Plants Trees Insects Fishes Fowls Brutes and Men. In Plants or Trees if we pare off the Skin or Bark and thereby stop the ascent of the Sap which is the Spirit of Life in Plants the Plant will die from that place upwards because this Sap or Spirit of Life will be obstructed in its ascent to the higher parts of the Plant and among Brutes or Men if the passage of the Blood be obstructed those parts to which the Blood cannot come with Freedom decay wither and become of little or no use to the Creature The Text says Flesh with the Life thereof which is the Blood thereof and Experience shews that the Life exhales with the Blood so as no Blood no Life Whence I collect the Spirit of Life in Brutes and men consists and resides in the Blood and the inflamed and glowing Spirits thereof and thence it seems that as the Spirit of Life in Plants is the Sap thereof so the Spirit of Life in Animals is the Blood kindled and glowing and the inflamed particles thereof and so our Text says Flesh with the Life thereof which is the Blood thereof And from the Premisses I argue that the Spirit of Life in Man is in his Blood and the inflam'd particles of it and Experience evidences that by like Blood and Spirits the Brutes are acted both in their Local and Peristaltick Motions their Senses of Bearing Seeing c. Their Affections of Lust Wrath and Fear and those degrees which they have of Phantasie Choice and Memory And I pretend hence to infer that if in the Blood there be a Spirit of Life which can act the Brutes in their Motions Sensations and Passions to as high a Degree as Men are acted in those performances and can act them to lower Degrees of Fancy Choice and Memory it seems a like Spirit may probably act humane Persons in all these Faculties and to much higher Degrees in those of Judgment Phantasie and Memory because in such Persons these Spirits meet with Organs of greater perfection and better fitted for the performance thereof And hereunto I apply the injecting of Brutal Blood into a Humane Body which Experience proves will act that Body in such manner as it was acted before by its own Blood because the Organs in which it works are better suited to such purposes than those of the
Freedom and the Doctor confesses it to be true and that the Soul as Immaterial as he supposes her cannot act without Material Assistance of the Phansie Memory and other Sensitive Powers and apparent it is neither the Man nor the Soul can act any thing without the Spirits of the Blood P. 126. The Doctor sets down three Moral Arguments proving the Souls Immateriality and Immortality 1. The Universal consent of Men to this Opinion 2. Man's Innate and Inseperable Appetite of Immortality 3. The Justice of God in rewarding good Men and punishing the Evil after Death Upon the first Argument he quotes Cicero's saying Omni in re Consensio omnium gentium lex naturae putanda est to this Rule I answer that if it should be admitted for a Rule yet there are many Exceptions to be made out of it and therefore I cannot admit it to have a binding force in this Case and to the Doctor 's Assertion of Universal Assent to the Souls Immortality by which he would prove it a Conception Natural to the Mind of Man I answer that a Conception so proving must be as Universal in Time as in Places or Persons but we do not Read or find that the Opinion of the Souls Immortality had a Being in the World or was known amongst Men before the Writings of Solomon because that in the Thousands of Years before his time we meet with no mention of that Opinion neither amongst the Patriarchs nor the Mosaical Writings nor any of the Prophets before Solomon's time nor do Job or David make any mention thereof We Read God laid great Punishments upon Cain for his Murther which was of great Importance in that time of the World and a very atroceous Fratricide and yet we do not Read of so much as a Threat against the Soul of Cain or any thing there spoken concerning Punishments future to this Life but all the Punishments denounced to him for that Fact were only Temporal and of this World nor do I find any Punishments future to this Life denounced against Sinners until the Books of Solomon became extant in the World save what was taken from the invention of some Poets which might be received in the World somewhat before his time And hence I infer That the Notion of the Souls Immortality is not Natural because for some Thousands of Years from the Worlds beginning that Notion was not received or known amongst Men. P. 131. The Doctor 's Opposer says the Opinion of the Souls Immortality is very Useful in Government for that audacious Malefactors who are not moved by the whole Arm of the Civil Magistrate will yet tremble at the Finger of Divinity P. 133. It is possible and Experience shews it frequent that an Opinion may be Universal possessiing the Minds of all Men for many Ages together without Dispute which yet at length may be Discovered to be False and Absurd as hath been Experienc'd in the Opinion of the Antipodes and the Circumvolution of the Earth both which till of late Years were held Unreasonable and Phantastical and perhaps this of the Souls Eternity may have the same Fate P. 134. Our Doctor says That to prove an Opinion derived from Nature there is required an Assent of all Ages from the beginning of the World To this I say The Opinion of the Souls Immortality hath not such a Consent and that such a Consent neither hath been or can be proved and that therefore the Opinion it self is not proved derivable from Nature or the Instinct thereof The Doctor says further That from the Antiquity Universality and Perpetuity of any Opinion we may safely conclude upon the Verity of it Hereunto I answer That the Opinion of the Suns Diurnal Motion about the Earth had a greater Antiquity and as great an Universality and hath still as strong a Perpetuity as that of the Souls Immortality either ever had or yet hath notwithstanding all which the Learned World begins now to perceive that it was always and is still an Error P. 138. Here the Doctor begins to produce and urge his second Moral Argument for the Souls Immortality from the Desires Men have of Perpetuity and Living after their Deaths either in their own proper Beings or in the Memories of such as survive their Departures To this I answer That if they desire a Perpetuity of their own Being after Death it seems they desire that which they cannot attain as all Men may and do desire a Perpetual Youth Health and Prosperity Nature and Reason both assure us that no Man doth or can desire a perpetual or a long Life under great Pains and Sufferings but a Life with Happiness is very acceptable to all Men and therefore they do not desire Life alone but as it is joyn'd with expectation or hope of Happiness and hence I collect that the much greater part of Mankind which the sinful World knownly are do not desire a future State of Life after Death but rather that there were no Being for them after this Life and would very much wish to be forgotten both by God and Men and therefore a Perpetuity of Being is not desired or so much desirable as our Doctor pretends it to be whence I conceive the Doctor 's Argument drawn from this Topick hath but little Force or Cohersion in it and not Strength enough to compel or even to draw Men to a Coherence with the Doctor in his Opinion of the Souls Immortality P. 145. Here the Doctor propounds his Third Moral Argument for proving the Souls Immortality and raises it from God's Divine Justice and his Equitable Dealings with Men and says it is commonly observ'd wicked Men prosper better in this World than the Righteous usually do and consequently that such Men are not rewarded according to their Works whilst they live and therefore God's just dealing with Men cannot be defended without allowing and believing a State of Rewards and Punishments after Death and from hence saith the Doctor it must unavoidably follow that Rewards and Punishments will be distributed to Men after their departures out of this Life To this I answer That I agree to all that the Doctor hath here delivered the Doctor replies if you so do you must likewise agree to the Doctrine of the Souls Immortality or the Seperate Subsistence of it for the Body after Death is not capable of receiving Reward or Punishment it must therefore be the Soul alone unto which such Rewards and Punishments can be applied Our Doctor not once mentioning or appearing at all to think upon the last Articles of our Creed I believe the Resurrection of the Dead and the Life Everlasting which seems to my Understanding a sort of Proof that he and the greatest part of those who believe and maintain the Souls Immortality are very little mindful of our quoted Article The Resurrection of the Dead insomuch as the Conceit of this Immortality seems to have eaten up and devoured the Article before-named with the Use and
judged by Solomon to be the very same with the Humane in these Words Yea they have all one breath In the flood of Noah we read That all in whose nostrils the breath of life was died in that flood And clear it is they so died because the Waters stopped the passage of that Breath by which they before lived And if it shall be demanded by what means these Creatures obtained their first Breath I conceive it was given them by the same or the like Means that Adam afterwards received it A Specimen of which we find recorded Ver. 37. where a vast number of dry Bones received a sudden and powerful Resurrection For first They came together bone to his bone Next to which loe the sinews and flesh came up upon them and then the skin covered them above but there was no breath in them Then God commanded that Prophet to prophesie unto the Winds and say come from the four winds O breath and breathe upon these slain that they may live So he prophesied as he was commanded and the breath came into them and they lived and stood up upon their feet an exceeding great Army And thus I conceive it fared with Adam at his first Creation the Bones Ligaments and principal Parts were framed and fitted one of them to another upon which were formed their Flesh and Sinews over all which the Skin was lastly super-induced And after this manner it seems Adam's Body was first created and perfected altho he lived not because there was yet no Breath in him his blood and Humours were turgid and full of Mettle fit and apt to tin'd and have the Flame of Life kindled in them with the first Blast of that Breath which God intended to breathe into him for that purpose And this Flame of Life he then appointed to be continually maintained in the Bodies of Beasts and in the Persons of Men by breathing and the constant fannings of the ambient Air so as 〈◊〉 Creatures can live but a very few Moments 〈…〉 Whilst 〈◊〉 Creatures breathe they lives 〈…〉 they cause to breathe they cense to live What 〈…〉 should prove in this Point is this That God 〈…〉 Creation and 〈…〉 did create for him and for the Information of that Body a new spiritual intelligent circumscribed Substance that should come ab extra and be injected into that new created Body by the mighty and miraculous working of God's Power 〈…〉 he be able thus to prove I confess it will follow 〈…〉 â—his Soul had a separate Subsistence before its being â—ast into the Humane Body and thence it will also be a very probable consequent that when at Death it shall be again divided from the Body it will be able to subsist in a state of Separation from the Body But till the Being of such a Soul shall be better proved I hold the Opinon of its Extinguishment at the Death of the Person to be more probable P. 14. To prove that the Soul and Body are Two seperate singular and different Beings Mr. W. quotes 1 Thess 5.23 where St. Paul says I pray God your Spirit Soul and Body be preserved blameless Himself confesses he knows not well how to distinguish betwixt Soul and Spirit in this Text but yet he declares himself certain that there is a Distinction asserted betwixt them and the Body And I Reply That the being of a Distinction betwixt them is no good Proof that the Soul can subsist in a State of Seperation from the Body for that the Relatives in the Holy Trinity are really distinct one of them from the other and yet no Division or Seperation can possibly be admitted amongst them And I farther conceive upon this Text that by St. Paul's Words of Soul Spirit and Body he intended no otherwise than that their whole Persons Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ And I desire my Reader to observe here that which I think to be a Failure in our learned and pious Author this Text of St. Paul truly and fully quoted runs thus The very God of Peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole Spirit Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Mr. W. quotes it thus I pray God your Spirit and Body be preserved blameless c. By which it appears that he omits the Word wholly and suppresses the Word whole in the beginning of the Text and then cuts it short in the end before he comes to the Words Vnto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and chusing to supply them by an Et caetera It seems this fallacious way of quoting Scripture did not fall upon our Author by chance but had a set Purpose in them and that he left out the Words wholly and whole in the Text because they may seem to Confirm and Fortifie my Exposition of it which is that the Words SPIRIT SOVL and BODY do all intend no more but the whole Persons of his Correspondents And he cuts off before the Words Vnto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ that he might avoid producing a very strong evidence against the Opinion which he maintains Because St. Paul does not pray God to preserve their Souls or Spirits at the time of their Departure out of this World but to preserve their whole Persons Souls and Bodies blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ As if he knew of no time of Reward or Punishment after this Life unto the second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ A like Charitable Prayer to this is delivered by the same Apostle 2 Tim. 1.16 where he says The Lord give Mercy to the House of Onesyphorus and the Lord grant unto him that he may find Mercy in that day viz. The Day or Time of our Lords Second Coming And so Chap. 4 he says My Departure out of this World is at hand and henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord Jesus the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to them also that love his Appearing These last Words fixt the Time when such Crowns shall be distributed viz. The Time of Christ's second Appearing to the World And because the Point thus fall'n under Examination seems one of the most important which is now in Question between us I will produce some further Evidence strongly tending to maintain my Part of this Question and place our Lord himself in the Front of my other Witnesses He says Luke 21.27 Then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a Cloud with Power and great Glory and when those things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your Heads for your Redemption draweth nigh Joh. 14.2 Christ says In my Fathers House are many Mansions I go to prepare a Place for you And if I go and prepare a Place for you I will come again and receive you to my self that where I am
is a Truth granted on both sides but his labour hath been to prove That the Soul is a seperable intelligent Spirit and of a quite different Nature from the Body But I think he hath here given very little Proof to that Purpose so far from being abundantly sufficient as that I think it scarce touches upon the Verges of his intended Proposition but how sufficiently he hath thereof acquitted himself I do freely and willingly leave to the Judgment of such Persons as may happen to peruse our Writings P. 15. Mr. W. delivers his second Proposition which he says is this That the Soul and Body are not only Two in number but that they are two Beings of a very different Nature His second Proposition seems to be so near of kin to his first that the Difference between them is not very evident and the Proof which he gives of this second Proposition seems to be coincident with the Proofs which he gave of the former for he says here That the Soul was immediately created by God Which Supposal he had before laid down as a Proof of his first Proposition and I have given it before such an Answer as satisfies my own Understanding And therefore I shall need to say no more of it here but that it passes with me for an unsound and fallacious Opinion whence I think fit to reject without further Examination all the Inferences and Arguments which he may pretend to draw from so unweak and unsound a Supposition He quotes for a Proof of it Gen. 2.7 which was before examined and in this place I shall say no more of it He says further The Body and all its Parts are but lifeless senseless things in themselves And herein I grant he says true and so are the Three Elements of Fire Air and Water and yet the two former are of so Active a Nature that they are always in Motion like those Particles which we call Motes in the Sun and therefore may justly have the Reputation of self-moving Principles And Water hath a propensity to Motion so natural that give it but a declivity and it can have no rest till it come to a place so even as it may stand in an Equilibrium free from the Impulse of any declination whatsoever It seems then that upon rinding and kindling the pullulent steams of Old Adam's Blood and Humours ready for that purpose that Breath which God then breathed into his Nostrils became the Breath of Life to him by kindling the Flame of Life in those Steams of his Blood and Humours which God had made ready for that Operation and this Flame or glowing of the Blood was immediately catch'd and disperss'd into the Vital and all other Parts of the Body putting them all in Motion and Attendency to perform all those Operations for which God had made them and we may conceive were intended to be produced in the Person then Created and in all other Persons which should after be Generated by Him Whence it seems that what is called the Breath of Life to Adam the same Breath or ambient Air became the Breath of Life to all Posterity For by this Medium sucked in by the Lungs the Flame of Life first kindled in the Body is fann'd and kept glowing in the Blood and Humours thereof And thus the Flame of Life must be continually fann'd maintain'd and purified by the Breath and by the Vigor and Activity of this Inflammation the Blood and Humours are kept in perpetual Motion and in a durable and endless Circulation so long as the Parts of the Body are able to endure the Activity of such Motion and until by Age or Decay of some of the Bodily Parts Corruption or Stagnation of the Blood or by some Accident this Flame of Life happen to be totally extinguish'd throughout every Part and Member of the Body and such total Extinguishment of the Vital Flame I esteem to be the Death of the Person Finding and believing That the Breath of Man and Beast is so necessary in them for maintaining the Flame of Life that by a short stoppage of the same by a Halter a Bow-string a piece of Phlegm or by a Fly sticking in ones Throat stopping the Mouth and Nostrils with a Cloth as Hazael served his Master Benhadab or any like Accidents both Man and Beast soon die and therefore such Means are often used for doing Execution upon them and the Reason thereof seems to be the Suffocation and Stifeling of this Vital Flame which can no longer by Natural Means be maintained without the fanning of this Breath of Life drawn from the ambient Air which passing through the Lungs is thence communicated to all the Entrails of the Body And from these Grounds I Argue That tho the Blood and Humours be but Matter and unintelligent in themelves as well as the Flesh Bones and other gross Parts of he Body yet God's great Wisdom hath so framed the Microcosm or Person and so organiz'd the Bodies of them as that every Part is fitted and ready for those Acts for which they were intended and these Organs rightly moved and acted by the Spirits inflamed and Humours of the Body do in a right Mixture one with another and by the working of such Spirits among and upon the Organs produce or effect thelocal Motions Senses and such Intelligence as pertain to Men and Beasts and are produced acted and performed in the several Species of them so long as those Spirits and Humours are maintained in the Body by a due Refection and Nourishment and so long as this Vital Flame continues to be fanned by the due Respirations both of Man and Beast And this I give for an Answer to the second Proof of his second Proposition concerning the vast Diversity as he calls it of the Nature of the Soul from that of the Body Mr. W. goes on to a Third Proof of this Diversity and saith The Body is often tired and spent and indisposed to Action when at the same time the Soul hath a Will and is bent to Action Which I thus Paraphrase The Man his Mind Affections or Will may be strongly bent to Action when his Bodily Members may be very weary and his Spirits spent And thus express'd I grant and know that what he says may be true viz. That the Spirits working in his Brain and moving his Affections and Will may continue their Working and Vigour in that Part longer than in the outward and more remâ—t Parts of the Body And this is that which our Lord I think intended when he said The Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak P. 16. Mr. W. goes on and says The Body is very frequently 〈◊〉 a very sick weak languishing Condition when the 〈…〉 as good a plight and sometimes better than when the 〈…〉 most healthy and strong surely if their Natures did not vâ—â—â—ly differ they would be sick and well together Here I prosess to differ from our Author in a Point of Fact
without the requisite Refreshment of Respiration which perpetually must fan the Flame of Life for maintaining the same in a State of Purity Vigor and Activity And thus the Spirit of Life in Man and Beast appears to be a Compositum of the Breath of Life and the Blood of our Lives acting by inflamed Spirits of the Blood the whole Motion and Power of the Body and iâ—s Organs as well in Motions local as in the sensitive rational and affective Operations and Powers of the Person So as these Two Principles of Breath and Blood Material and Unintelligent tho' they be seem to effect and produce in the Creature both Life it self and all the Powers and Faculties thereunto belonging And this sort of Spirit in Composito is all the Spirit of Life which yet I am able to perceive to be in Man or Beast and this causes me to apprehend it must be Mortal And that as it was procreated and born with the Body so it must cease at death with the Being of the Person and be therewith raised again at the General Resurrection of the Dead Notwithstanding the Evidence which I have produced for the maintaining this Opinion I rest assured my Opposers will maintain That there must be another sort of Soul or Spirit in Man for producing and managing his super-excellent Faculties of Intellect and Memory because they cannot perceive or understand the Quomodo or Manner how this Material Soul compounded of Breath Blood and the Spirits of it acted by the Circulation thereof can possibly produce the Effects and Operations last specified I do not perceive that they very much boggle at the Opinion That these Ingredients may possibly produce Life Motion sensitive Faculties and Affections because they cannot with any good Face of Reason and therefore do not deny That by such a Material Compounded Spirit of Life the Brutes and all their Powers are daily and certainly enlivened acted supplied and supported And I think they are not well able to deny That the Spirit of Life by me propounded is the Causa sine qua non of Intellect Memory and whatsoever other Supream Faculties there are found in the Constitution or Nature of the Humane Person And thererfore I will not say much in the Proof thereof which our daily Experience sufficiently demonstrates our Sense of Seeing often proving to us that Men and Beasts by hanging strangling drowning or by other Suffocations or Stoppings of their Breath are soon delivered over to the Dominion of Death and thereby the Words of David are verified When thou takest away their Breath they die And therewith shall be finish'd my present Argument Whence I go on to enquire after Solomon's Meaning in the Words of this Text The Spirit returns to God who gave it I dare not and thefore I do not Affirm That Solomon intended this sort of Spirit which I have described to be truly that Spirit which he says Returns to God who gave it and with intent to give a Reasonable Account thereof I think fit to Premise that there are Two other Sorts of Souls or Spirits commonly taken notice of in the Learned World The First of which and the most taken notice of is that Sort Soul which is often spoken of and described by Mr. W. and his Party and which they say is an entire compleat intelligent Spirit acting the Organical Body whil'st it therein remains and specially the Kepheline Organs thereof producing eminently therein the high Faculties of Perceiving Understanding Judgment Will and Memory and they sâ—y that after the Departure of this Soul from the Person who thereby is dissolved it can subsiâ—t by it self in a Seperate State and therein move it self and have full Enjoyment of the fore-named Powers of Reasoning Acting and Thinking and that very soon after its Seperation from the Body it goes to God or before His Tribunal to receive his Intermediate Judgment upon the Acts done by the Person in his Life Time and that pursuant to the Sentence therein given such Souls are either accepted into Heaven and Happiness or that they are cast down to Hell to be there made Partakers of Eternal Sufferings and that they have Sense and Perception enough to take a full Taste of these great Differences To which the Romish Church Annexes That besides the Souls that go to these Two Places there are other Souls which are sent some to Limbus's Paterum aut Puerorum other to Paradise or Abraham's Bosom and others of which they think there are a great Number into the scorching Flames of a Purgatorial Fire where they must undergoe great yet Temporal Sufferings for expiating the Crimes of their Dead Persons and Purging away that Dross which they had contracted in the Bodies of their Persons upon Earth The Second sort of Soul whereof notice is taken by the Learned is supposed to have a different Original rising from an Opinion very antient in the World which was That the whole World it self was one immense Living Creature or Machine animated or acted by one universal Soul Spirit or Being which the old Philosophers termed some of them the Soul of the World and by others it was called the Spirit of Nature which they so both described as they appeared to intend an universal or infinite Spirit from whence or from whom all the Life and Motion found in the World was derived Some of those Learned said That all the Life of Grasses Flowers and Plants was derived from that Spirit or Being and that upon their Dying that Vegitable Spirit which before was in them return'd again to the Spirit of Nature from whence it first proceeded Others went not so deep but contented themselves to say That the Spirit of Life in all those Creatures which had spontaneous Motion proceeded from this Soul of the World or that universal Spirit or Being which Animated or Acted the same and they conceived that when such Creatures were duely fitted for the receipt of Life this universally knowing Spirit was moved by a Natural Congruity in the thing to emit from it self such Sparks and Particles as were parts of it 's own Being for the communicating and giving such a Spirit of Life to those Creatures as their Natures required and that when such Living Creatures Dyed those Sparks or Parcels of the Spirit of Life which they had before received return'd immediately back to the universal Spirit of the World as to the Fountain from whence they issued or as to that Totum of which themselves were but the small Sparks or Particles to which they were again joyned and were received into it as true and real Parts and Particles of the same This apprehension hath been of a long continuance in the World coming down from the Discourses of Ancient Philosophers to the time of the Divine Plato by whom it was Cultivated and Confirmed so as all his Doctrines and Writings seem to have reference thereunto and taste very strongly of that Opinion and all his Scholars were much addicted thereunto
LORD's Words Luke 23.46 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I contend that the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this Text may and doth indifferently signifie sometimes Breath and sometimes Spirit according as may be required by the Subject matter of that Discourse wherein it is used And I do not blame our Translators for rendering it in this place by the English Word Spirit But then I intend that if it be so well rendred yet in this place it may have and likely hath a Tropical Signification by a very usual Synecdoche Partis pro toto by the Word Spirit intending his whofe Person now Dying he knew very well that his whole Person Body and Soul were to rise again upon the Sunday Morning after his Crucifixion which was finished upon the Friday in the Evening after Three of the Clock according to which we Read he was so raised on Sunday Morning at the very break of Day in his whole Person both Soul and Body the very same that Died was then Raised by Divine Power Whence I Collect our Lord recommended to his Father all that was after to be Raised viz. His whole Person Soul and Body signified and intended by the Word or Term of Spirit Mr. W. quotes further Acts 7.57 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which might well enough have been thus Translated Lord Jesus receive my Breath spent in the last moment of my life in maintaining the truth of thy Gospel Altho' I do not deny that our version by the Word Spirit is likewise a good Translation of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but then I pretend it must be taken in the like Figurative Signification as it was intended before in our Lords Ejaculation Mr. W. says in both these places he takes the Word Spirit to signifie that Spirit fore-kind which God breathed into Man at first when he became a Living Soul or Person and so do I take it but our difference is about what sort that Spirit was which God breathed into Adam whereby he became a Living Person I pretend it to be no more than a moderate Portion of the Ambient Air which by facing the Blood and Humours then turgid and fitted for that Operation might kindle the Flame of Life amongst them and should after by Respiration keep the same in a glowing or flaming Condition or circulation so long as the life of the Person should endure but Mr. W. pretends That God breathed into Adam's Nostrils a Newly Created Entire Substantial Intelligent Spirit which had a Subsistence of its own before its being breathed into Adam's Nostrils and shall have a like Subsistence of its own again at or after the Dissolution or Death of the Person At the beginning of this Fourth Proposition he promised and I believe intended to prove the Seperate Subsistence of his sort of Soul He hath not yet to my understanding performed it but how well he hath aquitted himself of that Design or Intention by his Mediums of proving recited in this Proposition shall be left to the Judgment of our indifferent Readers P. 23 Mr. W. delivers his Fifth Proposition which is That the Souls of Men seperated from their Bodies by Death are in Joy or Misery And for the Proof of this Assertion he quotes two and but two Passages out of the Bible the first of which is our Lords Promise to the Thief upon the Cross That he should be with him that Day in Paradise Upon which he says neither Jesus nor the Thief were that Day in Body there therefore they must be there in Soul only Upon which I observe a disagreement in my Mind from that which he first affirms conceiving it probable That their Bodies and Souls might both be present in Paradise that Day but then I do not confine the Term of that Day to the signification of an Artificial or Natural Day the first continuing but during the Light of one Day and the other containing the space of Twenty four Hours only and no more Psal 95 8. David says To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your Hearts Heb. 3.13 Exhort one another daily while it is called to day And there quotes Davids To Day as if it intended the Forty Years Travel in the Wilderness Luke 19.42 Christ wept over Jerusalem and said If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace And Peter says A thousand Years with God are but as one Day And the Prophets often denoted the space of a Year by one Day More like Testimonies might be Collected out of Scripture to prove that when God himself or by his Prophet speaks of a Day they do not tye up the Signification thereof to the precise time of an Artificial or Natural Day but do intend that within a competent short time such things shall come to pass and I do not pretend to prolong the Signification of our Lords to Day in Mr W.'s quoted Text beyond Sunday for they were Crucified upon Friday in the Evening and the one Died and the other might well enough rise up on Sunday Morning and that Morning our Lord appeared first to Mary Magdalene and John 20.17 In Discourse said unto her Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father Vers 19. The same day at evening being the first day of the week came Jesus and stood in the midst of his Apostles and shewed them his hands and his side Luke 24.38 Says the Disciples were afraid of our Lord 's appearing And he said unto them Why are ye troubled and why do thoughts arise in your hearts Behold my hands and my feet that it is I my self handle me and see for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have From these Relations I Collect That after our Lords appearing to Mary Magdalene he did Ascend to his Father and might then also go to that Paradise intended for the Thief and that in the Evening of that Day he appeared in the Assembly of his Disciples and said to them Handle me and see or perceive for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye may feel me have Hence I infer That our Lord had been in Heaven or Paradise on the very Day of his Resurrection and after his return from thence offer'd himself to be handled and felt by his Disciples altho' before his Ascending thither he would not suffer Mary Magdalene to touch him And this I think proves our Lord to have been in Paradise in so short a time after his Promise to the Thief as might well be called to Day Concerning the Thief I observe That he Died likewise upon Friday Evening and that from thence to Sunday Morning his Body might remain apparent without liklihood of being tainted We read Matt. 27.52 The Graves were opened and many Bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of the Graves after our Lords Resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared unto many Arguendo from these
weakly proves the Seperate Subsistence of Souls or their receiving Rewards or Punishments before the Second Coming of our Lord to Judgment and the Resurrection of the Dead P. 24. Mr. W. closes up his Fifth Proposition with these Words Having cleared up the five Propositions from diverss Scriptures he wonders at the Confidence of such Men as dare pretend to perswade People that we have no clear Scripture to found the Belief of the Souls Immortality on I Answer That his Confident Sayings which prove not I willingly pass by and from the woes Pronounced against his Opposers and Shield my self by the Words of Solomon The Woe 's pronounced without good cause or the Curse cause less shall not come Chapter IIII. PAge 26. Mr. W. says A Man may be truly said to know God I Reply If he thereby mean the knowings of God is or Quod sit Deus I grant it but if he mean it of the Quid sit Deus or that Man knows what manner of Being God is I then deny it He thinks if he can describe the Properties or Attributes of a Soul from which we feel the Operition of Life spring in us he shall thereby give us sufficiently to know what the Soul of Man is I Reply That Men ascribe Attributes and Properties to God upon the Certainty or Knowledge that they have or may have from divers clear Topicks that there is such a Being as God in the World but the like manner of Proceeding will not serve to prove the Being of such a Soul in the World as he describes and therefore I do require of him or any other who undertakes this Province first to prove that really and truly there is such a sort of Soul in the Humane Person as he pretends and if that be not first done they can but ascribe what Attributes and Properties they please to they know not what or to such a thing as they cannot prove to have any Being at all which is quire otherwise in the Case put by him before concerning God P. 27. Mr. W. says The Soul is not the Breath of Man Thereby it seems intending That the Word Breath is not Equipollent to the Word Soul of Man and this I grant him That the Breath of Man is not his Soul because I conceive there goes more parts to make up the Soul or Spirit of Man's Life The Five Inferences which he pretends to draw from the Soul 's being the Breath I pass over as not greatly material P. 28. Mr. W. says Secondly That as the Soul of Man is not the Breath so it is not the Blood and then infers That if Blood be the Soul of Man all the Food it hath to live upon is the Bread that Perisheth I Reply That all the Food that Man hath to live upon Naturaly is the Bread that Perisheth or is the nourishment which he duly obtains to that purpose and thereby is the Spirit of his Life daily supported and upon the failure or not obtaining thereof the Man must Languish Consume and Die and he and his Spirit of Life or Soul go out of the World and be Extinct together Further I conceive The Man his Spirit of Life or Soul hath no other Natural Nourishment but Viands of the kind before-mentioned His following Expressions seems to be altogether Figurative He offers That if Blood were the Humane Soul Lectures out of Galen and Hippocrates would be more proper to Purge away Sin and bring Souls to Christ then Sermons out of the Bible Here I suppose by Souls he intends Persons or begs the Question now in dispute between us Seeing he well knows I give no credit to the Being of such a Soul as he very positively asserts And this being premised I say That Purifying and Purging the Blood may very much help and better the Humane Understanding and Sermons out of the Bible may be very good helps and directions to the Man in the government of his Affections and the performing of his Duty to God P. 29. Mr. W. Argues and Says If the Soul be the Blood then that a Man of Sixty Years of Age has not the same Soul he had at Fifteen and then how can you think this Old Man can be guilty of the Sins of his Youth I Reply That a Man's Soul is always of the same Nature and Kind and tho the material parts of it do not always remain the same yet the Man remains always the same Person from Four to Fourscore and liable to answer for the Faults which he had long before Committed Then he tells me that which I still profess not to believe tho' he doth tell it me That the Soul is of a different Nature from the Body and doth neither grow with it in Youth nor Decay with it in Age but remains in one same State and Power during all the State of our Lives P. 30. He pretends to prove this by a Similitude which I think to be foreign to our Question and adds nothing to the Proof of his Assertion and the like I think may be said of his letting of Sheeps and Man's Blood into one another reciprocally and therefore I pass them both over P. 31. He says further That as the Soul of Man is neither his Breath nor Blood so it is not God or any part of his Divine Essence In all which I am ready to agree with him having before declared and described what manner of thing I think the Spirit of Life in Man to be and that in its cohabitation with the Body it partakes of Growth and Decay Health and Sickness Strength and Weakness Joy and Sorrow and receives in the end an Extinguishment at the Death of the Person or that Extinguishment it self is Death Mr. W. says The Soul of man is guilty of Inadvertency Rashness Folly I do not agree with him in this Expression But if he had said The Person or the Man is subject to these Infirmities I should soon have agreed with him in that because I have often said I have no Conception of a Man without a Soul or of a Soul without a Man but think that to act or suffer any thing they must be both together And I Appeal to the Intelligent World whether by such Experience as Men can attain therein they do not find it so P. 32. Mr W. says The Soul is a Spirit created of God and indued with Sense and Reason and a Power of actuating an Humane Body by Vital Vnion therewith P. 33. For the prooving of a Spirit to be a Substance and that a Humane Soul is such a Substance he refers his Readers to all that he hath said or shall say to prove the Soul is a Being independent on the Body I Reply That as far as I am able to judge all that he hath hitherto said seems very insufficient for that Purpose and what he will or can shew to perswade the Belief of that Opinion Time must shew P. 34. he says We feel in our
Soul a Power of Thinking which being thus worded I deny my Assent thereunto But had he said That a Man feels or finds a Power of Thinking in himself I should have easily agreed with him in it He says The variety of Thoughts or Acts of Willing are the Soul's Motion I say They are Motions or Actings in the Mind of Man effected by acting the inflam'd Spirits of the Blood working in the Kepheline Organs in the which the Great Artificer GOD framed and placed them and to that Purpose gave them sufficient Power to perform such Actions when He created the Fabrick of the Humane Body and breathed into its Nostrils the Breath of Life whereby the Spirits of the Blood and Humours became inflamed for acting in a Body to such Purposes and by such an Excellent and Artificial Composition always to be continued by Respiration God's excellent Wisdom and Power did in the beginning produce these Workings amongst such Kepheline Organs and gave them in this Compositum Power to produce Perception Fantasie Judgment Will Memory Affections Local Motions and all other Powers or Faculties of the Humane Mind or Person whatsoever I know that upon reading of this Discourse Mr. W. and his Party will all cry out How can these things be That unintelligent senseless Materials working amongst or together with one another should be able to produce Life Sense Affections Perception Intellect Memory in the Person demanding of me on Account or Declaration how such things can with any Probability be effected by the working together of such Materials And I Answer That the Quomodo of such an Operation is a Speculation too sublime and curious for the Wit of Man to compass or obtain The Artifice of the Humane Machine cannot be throughly penetrated or discovered by the sublimest Wits amongst Men witness the doubtings both of Solomon and Aristotle discover'd in their Discourses upon the Points now in Question That God hath Wisdom and Skill sufficient to produce Intelligence by means of Material Operations seems true and something clear to my Understanding and but few of our Opposers do deny somewhat a like Artifice and Operation in the Brutal Nature They seem ready to Agree That God by his Wisdom and Skill used in the Fabrication of the Brutes hath in the beginning produced and doth still produce Life Motion Sensations Affections inward Perceptions Phantafie Choice and Memory by the Medium before described viz. The moving and acting of such Spirits of the Blood in the Kephaline and other Organical Parts of their Bodies without such an entire intelligent Spirit as Mr. W. will needs suppose to be in Man Daily Experience convinceth us That the Life Motions Sensations and Affections of the Brutes are as true strong vigorous and active as they are in Men altho' their inward Perceptions Phantasie Choice and Memory fall short of the like Faculties in Men by divers degrees or gradations which I think may very probably come to pass by the difference in their Kephaline Organs which are framed more aptly for such Purposes in Men than in Beasts Whence we may suppose the difference between them in this Point rises not so much from the diversity of the Spirits which move and act them as from the difference and degrees of Perfection amongst their Organs which are so to be acted For Illustration of which Position we may farther consider the Fabricks of their Bodies and thereupon we must find that Humane Bodies have Advantage above the Brutal in two Particular Members viz. their Hands and Tongue of which Members and their Activity if Humane Bodies were deprived they would be much more like the Beast that perish than now they are and yet Men do not use to Argue from these Bodily Advantages that their Flesh Blood Bones or Breath have a different Nature or Constitution from those of Beasts But People are generally content to say with Solomon That the Corporeal Constitutions of Man and Beast are of a Similar Nature and Constitution one of them with the other Whence it seems to me probable That although the Spirits Act with greater Perfection the Heads and Brains of Men than they do among Beasts yet that hinders not but that they may all be acted by Spirits of a Similar Nature one of them to another And thus Arguing I pretend to have shewn that the Minds of Men are more likely to be Acted by the Inflamed Spirits of the Blood and Brain than by an Intelligent Spirit created by God for that Purpose and yet it is still apparently true that Men are not able to give an Account of the Mode or Manner of the Production of such Powers in the Mind of Man by the Motions or Actings of those Spirits in his Brain that I conclude to be the Arcanum Opificis and that none other can tell or find out how the same is perform'd And hereupon I incline to rebut upon my Opposers with their own Argument and to demand of them How or by what means or after what manner their Intelligent Soul can or doth Move and Act the Body and the several Organs and Members thereof having found them all hitherto confessing that themselves do not know and therefore cannot declare to others the certain or likely Mode or Manner of that Performance and for their Souls being Tota in toto tota in qualibet parte I pass it for an Aenigma or Riddle conceiving there is no apparent Sense in that Expression nor any clear Truth to be drawn out of it P. 34. Mr. W. says That his the Soul can look upon one thing and think upon another of a quite different nature and that she can be in the noise of an Army and yet in a profound and blessed Peace She can cool the Blood in its greatest fervour of Lust P. 35. So that it is evident she hath an absolute Empire over the Body and all its Parts and is not constrain'd in her Motions by them but they are all at her Command and move by her Direction Hereunto I Reply That so much as is true of what he says the Soul can do may be most properly predicated of the Man and not of the Soul which alone can do no such things as he speaks of Next for the absolute Monarchical Power which he ascribes to the Soul over the Person I think he is in an Errour about it Rom. 7.15 That which I do I allow not for what I would that do I not but what I hate that do I. Ver. 17. And that it is not I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me Ver. 18. To will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not for the good I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do and it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me I delight in he Law of God after the inward Man but I see another Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind
divers other great things here named And in these Sayings I am at Agreement with him without believing these things are done by the Soul alone but by the Person in Composito chiefly acted therein by the Faculty and Power of its Reason Here he quotes an Author that says Homo solus est animus corpus autem hominis opus instrumentum animus intelligentiam exercet sine ullo corporis instrumento In English thus The Soul only is the Man and the Body is but the Souls Organ or Instrument and the Soul can exercise its Faculty of Vnderstanding without any Assistance of the Bodily Organs But this Quotation proves no more to me than that there are other Men who are of Mr. W's Opinion and think as he doth which there was no need at all to prove because I stand convinc'd that the World of Men in general are so But let Mr. W. prove that those Words of his Author are true and then Erit mihi magnus Apollo I will give up the Cudgels to him and confess him Victorious in this Dispute For I am agreed with Aristotle in the beginning of his Book de Anima That if the Soul ever was known to do or can be proved able to do any thing without assistance of the Body and its Organs such Proof will be Evidence enough to Convince considering Persons that she hath a Nature and Subsistence of her own wherein she can act in a state of Seperation from the Body But of this Power I find no more Proof but the Saying recited in this Quotation P. 42. Mr. W. says If the Soul will the Feet walk the Hands work and so for the Motion of the Eyes and other like things All which I pass as before for a Mistake mendable by saying If the Man will the Feet walk and the Hands work and the like Further in his Fifthly he saith The Soul is Vitally united with the Body and by virtue of that Vnion enlivens and acts it Thereunto I say That the Spirit of Life in Man or the Body make but one Person who whilst he lives moves directs and acts himself and uses his Intellective Voluntary and Memorative Powers and Faculties with full Liberty according to his own liking and pleasure naturally He speaks here of a Vital Union between the Body and the Soul which Expression I do not Approve because they both together make but one Person as two Ingredients which make but one Compositum not as two different things that are united and joyned together but as Ingredients may be totally mixed and a new Product arise out of them all so as that if any of them be wanting in the Composition the Product cannot truly be the same it was before P. 43. He says That to tell you what the Soul is so as to make it an Intelligible Notion is not so impossible a thing as some have conceiv'd it to be Thereto I say that by such Descriptions as he hath before made of the Soul and all that he hath hitherto spoken thereof I am not able to understand or believe any more coneerning his sort of Soul than I did before I began to peruse his Treatise The Repetition of those things which he saith he hath performed I pass over as finding no Proving Force among them I find no more Chapters in this Treatise than those Four which have before been Examined but that here Mr. W. begins to alter his Method and to divide the rest of his Treatise by Arguments to the Number of Eighteen of which he Treats distinctly and severally in his following Discourse and I purpose to follow him therein and use the same Method in my Observations The First Argument PAge 44. Mr. W. Says That upon Gods breathing into Adam He is in the Text called a Liveng Soul a Denomination taken from the more excellent Part of Man his Soul This Expression seems to Agree with what I have formerly spoken That here the Words a Living Soul signifie and intend a Living Person putting the more noble Part or Ingredient to signifie the whole Person so as it passes in his Judgment for a Figurative Expression P. 46. Mr. W. Says When God Breathed which he properly doth not there is something else meant which can be nothing else but a special Act of Creation by which he made the Spirit or Breath of Life which he breathed into Man I Answer That in the Text there is no express mention of a Creation either of Breath or Spirit P. 47. He Says By the Breath of God is meant that Act of Divine Power by which God made Man and gave Life to him I am not willing to differ from Mr. W. and therefore agree to this Expression He quotes Ps 33.6 By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth The later of them alluding to God's Power shewed in the Creation of Adam but thence he infers This Breathing into Adam must be look'd upon as the Creating somewhat But I find no strength at all in this Inference nor that it proves with any strength of Cohersion the Creation of any thing save Adam's Body at the time when God made Man And I grant that then whatsoever was Created besides his Body was a Creature But I do not herein find any manner of Proof that God then Created a Soul for Adam Here Mr. W. Repeats his former Argument concerning the signification of the Hebrew Word which our Translators have rendred by the Term of Breath and says That the same Word doth also sometimes signifie Spirit To this I say That our Translators thought it not fit to render it by the Term of Spirit in this place and I value their Judgment before those of Mr. W. or Mr. Buxtorf and therefore take that Word to signifie most properly in this place the Breath of Life P. 48. He pretends the words should run thus God breathed or created in Man the Breath of Life or that Spirit or Soul of Life And in truth if the words had run so they would have run much better for the maintainance of his Opinion than now they do but I do not perceive by what Authority he takes upon him so to Correct or as some may take it Corrupt the Text. The Breathing which he says discover'd a New Created Spirit to be there I say detected only a Spirit of Life to be there which was tinded and kindled in the Spirits of the Blood and Humours then fitted and ready for that Operation by the moderate fanning of that Breath which God or his Agents then breathed into Adam's Nostrils and this was the humane Spirit of Life tinded and kindled by that Breath of Life and from that time to this time it is and must be continually kept Flaming or Glowing by the constant respirations and fanning of this Breath by want of which this Flame would be Extinguished in a short time or a very few moments of it
Animal wherein it acted before and it seems consequent that if the Blood and its particles be the Spirit of Life in Man and can act all his Faculties as before hath been expressed then there is no need to imagine the being of an immaterial intelligent Spirit in Man quia frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pautiora natura nihil facit frustra Wherefore I conclude that the Blood and its Particles inflamed or glowing are the Spirit of Life in Man as well as in Brutes and that there neither needs nor probably is in him such an Immaterial Intelligent Spirit as Mr. W. and those who maintain his Tenet have supposed In Confirmation of what God said before to Noah we read Levit. 7.11 The Life of the Flesh is in the Blood and I have given it to you upon the Altar to make an Atonement for the Souls intending your selves Vers 13. He that hunts or kills a Beast or Fowl he shall even pour out the Blood thereof and cover it with Dust for it is the Life of all Flesh the Blood of it is for the Life thereof Secondly I object against Mr. W's Opinion from Job 3.11 Why died I not from the Womb why did the Knees prevent me or the Breasts that I should suck For now should I have lain been quiet and have slept or as if a hidden untimely Birth I had not been Vers 17. In Death the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary are at rest there the Prisoners rest together and hear not the Voice of the Oppressor and the Servant is free from his Master This Text declares to us Job's Opinion concerning the state of dead Persons they all sleep and rest together in Death Great and Small Strong and Weak Prisoners and Free-men Servants and Masters Death reduces them all to a like Estate of Freedom Peace and Rest without any disturbance amongst them He makes no mention here or in any other place of Rewards or Punishments until the Resurrection and then he professes to expect to see his Redeemer with the Eyes which he had but concerning an Intermediate State he is utterly silent which it seems likely he would not have been if he had known of such an Intermediate State of Souls as Mr. W. and his party pretend to maintain We see that Job seems to make Death a rest from all such Sufferings as were known to him and had he known or believed such Rewards after Death as Mr. W. pretends we may reasonably expect he should have made mention of them and from his silence about Rewards and his Opinion of Rest from Sufferings I conclude he knew of no such things to be found of Men soon after their Deaths And I infer from this Argument that the Souls Seperate Subsistence and the great Rewards and Punishments thereof to be expected immediately after Death was unknown to Job and the Men of his time and is therefore a later Opinion taken up and yet generally accepted in the times which came after him and wants much of that Authority which its Derivation from the Primitive times of the World might have given it A Third Objection against Mr. W's Doctrine I take from King David Psalm 146.2 Put not your Trust in Princes or in any Child of Man for when the Breath of Man goeth forth he shall turn again to his Earth and then all his Thoughts perish Psal 49.10 Wise Men die and perish together as well as the Ignorant and Foolish Vers 12. Man will not abide in Honour seeing he may be compared to the Beasts that perish Vers 20. He repeats again Man being in Honour hath no Vnderstanding but is compared unto the Beasts that perish In the first proving Text David says When the Breath of Man goeth forth he shall turn again to his Earth whence his Son Solomon may have taken his Saying Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it Here it seems to me that David's Breath which at Death goeth forth intends the same thing with Solomon's Spirit returning to God who gave it but thereunto David adds That when this Breath is gone forth and thereby the Man is returned to his Earth all his Thoughts perish whence it seems there is not one Thought left in him but we know that the Faculty of thinking can never continue without some Thoughts arising in it and therefore if all a Mans Thoughts perish with his Death I infer his Faculty of Thinking must do so too which it cannot do if there be such a Seperately Subsisting Intelligent Soul in Man as Mr. W. strongly asserts And if my Opposers should contend that the Thoughts which are here said to perish do mean the Intentions and Designs of the Person when alive I answer That there is no need in this place to alter the plain Sense of the Words for that the plain Sense of them may very well stand in this place conceiving that in their plain Sense they are as true as in that other Sense which my Opposers would put upon them without any just occasion so to do And hence I am apt to conclude upon this Text that there is not such a Seperable Intelligent Soul in Man as Mr. W. hath all along pretended In our second Text David exhorts not to be afraid of the Riches or Glory of any Man for when he dies he shall carry nothing away with him he counted himself and other Men counted him happy whilst he liv'd but his Happiness ends with his Life for Man being in Honour hath no Understanding but is compared to the Beasts that perish Let Men be as Rich Wise and Happy and as much in Honour as this World can afford yet all these Preheminences ends with his Life and it seems so also do his Miseries and dying or dead he may be compared to the Beasts that perish his Breath goeth forth and he turns again to the Earth from whence he was taken and so also it is with the Beasts that perish Hence it seems That Solomon should have been the first Person who started the Question Whether the Spirits of Men go upward and the Spirits of Beasts downward or not And after not knowing well what became of the Spirit or Breath which goes forth of a Man at Death he says Transiently and without any Deliberation that appears this Spirit or Breath returns to God who gave it but of such a Spirit or the return thereof we meet with no mention in Scripture before his time that I have yet found out and I am therefore ready to conclude with my quoted Texts out of David that tho' Men be had in Honour during their Lives yet at and after Death they may as concerning their Natural Estate be truly and reasonably compared to the Beasts that perish My Fourth Objection against Mr. W's Tenet I take from Solomon Eccles 4. That Wise King saw great and remediless Oppressions imposed on
stedfast always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your Labour is not in Vain in the Lord the Resurrection of the Dead being thus certainly and undoubtedly proved to you you must be stedfast and unmoveable in your Religion knowing that your Labour is not in Vain in the Lord. In Mr. W's Thirteenth Objection against his own Opinion he propounds it thus our Opponents alledge vers 18. of this Chapter inferring that if there be no Resurrection Then those who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished which they say could not follow if there were any state of a Blessed Life for a Seperate Soul for that tho' there were no Resurrection of the Dead yet Souls already in Heaven should still be happy there and not be perished for want of a Resurrection of the Person To this Mr. W. answers That in the course of this Text St Paul intends to prove the Resurrection of Christ and to teach that if his Resurrection was not true then all those who are fallen asleep in Christ should be perished There Mr. W. says thus now to prove that Christ was risen which was the Antecedent of the Apostles Argument he argues either Christ is risen or we have been preachers of what is Vain and false and then those who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished Hereunto I reply That we do not read in this or any other Text that there was a Dispute among the Corinthians about the Resurrection of Christ but that it was both preached and believed amongst them that he was risen from the Dead and from that Established and Undoubted Truth the Apostle inferrs the Resurrection of the Dead and says the one of them is as true as the other but if there be no Resurrection of the Dead then is Christ not risen and if these be not both true then all Christian Religion is vain and false and those who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished This sort of arguing seems to suppose a possibility that those who are fallen asleep in Christ may be perished which were a vain supposal if their Separated Souls did still subsist and were Immortal because that whether there be a Resurrection or not a Resurrection and whether Christ were risen or not risen yet Seperate Souls would still have a Subsistence and not be perished as here our Apostle supposes they would be if the Resurrections so preached to the Corinthians were not true So as our Apostles Expression seems not well to agree with Mr. W's Opinion of the Souls Seperate Subsistence but it is at full agreement with the material Opinion who maintain as St. Paul doth that if there be no Resurrection then all hope of Recompences future to this Life are Vain and those who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished Mr. W. says farther There is no Way or Means for expiation of your Sins and removal of the Curse besides the Death of Christ I say we are taught by this Text that his Death would avail us nothing without his Resurrection and our Resurrection also Then Mr. W. quotes if Christ be not risen the Wrath of God still abides on you and says this is spoken because his Resurrection was to be the Evidencing Sign among the rest that his Death was accepted of the Father for that end he professes to lay it down which was to expiate our Sins I say he professeth to lay it down that he may take it up again and he was convinced that it would be accepted of his Father before he laid it down and then he rose again for our Justification rather than as a Testimony that his Death was accepted of the Father of which there was before no doubt at all Mr. W. goes on and says He denies that the Apostle â—ntends by these Reasonings to prove immediately the Resurrection of all Men but only as their Resurrection comes in upon the Resurrection of Jesus Christ which is the only thing in these Verses now named that the Apostle was proving To this I reply That the Resurrection of the Dead and the Doubt which some Men had thereof is the principal and only Question which I conceive to be disputed of in this Text for we do not read of doubt made by any Man concerning the Resurrection of Christ for Christ was preached to the Corinthians and that he rose from the Dead and this Doctrine was receiv'd and believ'd by the Corinthians and yet some of them denyed the general Resurrection of the Dead and to convince those Unbelievers of their Error the Apostle tells them that the general Resurrection of the Dead is as true and certain as the Resurrection of Christ was and therefore I think the main scope of St. Paul was to convince the doubting Corinthians and to prove the general Resurrection of the Dead and which of us two have the Right in this Point shall be referred to the Judgment of such Readers as will consult St. Paul's Text thereupon Mr. W. says further to his Opposers the manner of the Apostles Argument is not as ye conceive That if the Bodies of the Saints do never rise then ye are in your Sins and those that are dead in Christ are perished Replying thereunto I say that I know none of his Opposers who argue in such a manner as he hath imposed upon them nor that examine or consider the Resurrection of the Body because we do not find in the whole Tenor of the Bible that expression of the Resurrection of the Body It is true that as we now use the Apostles Creed in English we find there mention'd the Resurrection of the Body but clearly we therein depart from our Originals of that Creed both in the Greek and Latin Languages the Greek calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latin calls it Resurrectionem Carnis the true English of both which Expressions is the Resurrection of the Flesh and after that manner I think it ought to be mended in our English Translations or Creed Whence it seemeth not to follow that the Body should be first raised and then a Substantial Intelligent Spirit ab extra should be put into it but that such raising shall be like the first formation of Adam and the covering of Ezekiels dry Bones with Flesh and Skin and the filling them with Blood and Humors apt to be kindled and inflamed by such a moderate Wind or Breath as may be breathed upon them or into them for kindling the flame of Life in their vital Parts thence to be communicated to all the rest of their Bodies John 5.28 The Hour is coming in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear his Voice and shall come forth they that have done Good to the Resurrection of Life and they that have done Evil to the Resurrection of Damnation The manner after which Persons so raised shall come forth seems to be by forming the Flesh Bones Arteries Veins Nerves and Sinews into the shape of a humane
Body containing therein such Blood Humors and Organs as are needful for the production and perfection of Life and all the Faculties and Powers of a humane Person whose Blood and Humors will then be apt for kindling into a Flame or glowing of the Blood by such a moderate Breath as Ezekiel was directed to call for to come from the four Winds and breath upon these newly formed Persons that they may live which done the newly formed Persons are thereby made living able to hear the Voice of the Son of God and at his Call to come out of their Graves and deliver themselves from the strong Bands of Death and such I conceive the rising of the Dead will be not a partial but a total Resurrection of the Person not first the Body rais'd and then an Intelligent Soul be injected thereinto for the Body cannot rise or come out of its Grave without a Spirit of Life or such a sort of Soul as is natural suitable and fitted for that Performance I do therefore reject the expression by him used viz. the Resurrection of the Body because it is no where used in the Scripture and because there is no such thing in Nature as that a Body should rise and live without a Soul what rises therefore is not only the Body but the Person which was dead a very like or his very same Person which before had died Mr. W. in the Conclusion of this Objection says to his Opposers that it is a strange Inference ye draw from this Text That because it is certain that Christ is risen that therefore the Souls of Men are mortal I reply This would be a very strange Inference indeed if his Opposers either said so or thought so but they profess to do neither the one nor the other but this they do say and believe that if the Resurrection of Christ and the General Resurrection of the Dead be not both true then all those who are fallen asleep tho' never so good are perished and consequently that the Souls of Men have not a Seperate Subsistence after the death of the Person and thus I finish my Reply to Mr. W's Answer given to this Objection and proceed to the giving concurrent Evidences from the Texts before quoted for strengthning the force of this my Eighth Objection Our Apostle having finish'd this Text goes on in the same Chapter to Vers 32. And there says If after the manner of Men I have fought with Beasts at Ephesus what advantageth it me if the Dead rise not Let us eat and drink for too Morrow we die Which sayings I think may be thus rightly Paraphrased Whatsoever Sufferings I undergo for Christ's sake in this World they will advantage me nothing if the Dead rise not and then we need no more in this World but to eat and drink and die and there 's an and of us And if this Saying be true and the very meaning of our Apostle in this Text I think it gives a fatal blow to the Seperate Subsistence of Souls and yet our Apostle proceeds further in this Chapter to Verse 52. Where he says The Trumpet shall sound and the Dead shall be rais'd uncorruptible and we who are then alive shall be changed and the last Verse of this Chapter he adds Therefore my beloved Brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know your Labour is not in Vain in the Lord for I have given you as certain Proofs as Faith can desire that there shall be a General Resurrection of the Dead at which time all People shall be rewarded or punished according to their Works Heb. 11.35 The Saints indured great Persecutions and Torments not accepting Deliverance from them because they expected a better Resurrection Luke 14.14 When thou makest a Feast do not only bid thy Friends and rich Neighbours who are likely to make thee a Recompence but bid also the Poor the Maimed the Lame and the Blind who cannot Recompense thee and therefore for thy so doing thou shalt be Recompensed at the Resurrection of the Just And now I demand one Text of Scripture to be produced where it is said That Men for their good Works done in this World shall be Recompensed at or soon after their Deaths I know of no Text that declares this to us or from which it can with clear Reason be collected and therefore I say that the Reason given us why our Labour shall not be in Vain in the Lord is because there shall certainly be a Resurrection from the Dead and after that a Judgment wherein every Person shall be rewarded according to his Works and upon these Grounds I am ready to conclude that this my Eighth Objection strongly batters and assaults and even overthrows the Opinion of the Souls Seperate Subsistence A Ninth Objection against Mr. W's Opinion I raise from 1 Thess 4.13 Where St. Paul says I would not have you to be ignorant Brethren concerning them that are asleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him and so goes on describing the manner and effects of the Resurrection of the Dead adding Comfort one another with these Words I offer this for you Comfort that there shall certainly be a Resurrection of the Dead wherein your dead Friends also shall rise again and I would have you make this a Comfort to you concerning both your dead Friends and your dying Selves advising you to repose your hopes thereupon and to comfort your selves and one another with your Discourses and Communications concerning it Our Apostle appears here comforting the Hearts of his Correspondents against the sufferings of Death either by their Friends or by themselves and takes his ground of Comfort in such Cases from our assured Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Dead and thereupon I observe that he doth not ground and Hope or Comfort upon the Souls Seperate Subsistence or its going to Heaven immediately after Death which gives me a firm ground of perswasion that he either did not know of this Opinion or he did not believe it for if he had believed this Doctrine to be true I think he could not have forgotten or forborn to give his Disciples Comfort from that Topick because such Comforts would have been much nearer than those which he derived from the Doctrine of the Resurrection and would have been both a more short and sure way to that Salvation and future Happiness which Men desire and therefore if St. Paul had believed this Doctrine to be true I think he could have no reason for his balking it in this place but in congruity of Reason must have said Brethren comfort your selves against Sorrows for your Friends Deaths and the fear of your own by considering the happy State of those which die in the Lord for that their Spirits or Souls immediately
upon parting from their Bodies either return to God who gave them and are received into Heaven and Happiness or they shall be carried by Angels into Abraham's Bosom and there enjoy at least a blessed Rest from their Labours and all future Sufferings I doubt not but that the Divines of our time would readily have administred such Comforts as these to the Friends of dead People or even to the dying Persons themselves but in our quoted Text we find St. Paul did not so proceed with his Correspondents upon this like Occasion for the only Comfort which thereupon he propounds to them is drawn from the Doctrine of the Resurrection which in this Place he somewhat at large delivers as knowing that to be sufficient for Mens Comfort in such Cases without remembring or believing our late comfortable Doctrine or Opinion of the Souls going to Heaven immediately after Death and hereupon I conclude that this Doctrine was either not known to him or not believed by him and that therefore it is an Error and no certain Truth or the very Truth of God A Tenth Objection against Mr. W's Opinion I raise from the concurrent Testimonies of many Scripture Texts referring the expectation of future Rewards or Punishments looked for after this Life unto the time of the Resurrection of the Dead and the Last Judgment without finding and such Expectation at the time of Men's Deaths referred to or mention'd in any Text of Scripture In the Catalogue of Mr. W's own Objections he hath made this the Sixth and propounds it thus The Scriptures say my Opposers do frequently make mention of the Great and General Day of Judgment and refer all the Rewards of the Saints to that Day and so all the Punishments of the Wicked therefore the Souls of Men die with their Bodies as being uncapable of Rewards or Punishments till then To this Objection he answers concessively and says I do partly acknowledge the first part of what ye say that Scriptures do frequently make mention of that great Day and again that the greatest Rewards and Punishments are reserved to that Day but I deny the later part of what ye say because the Scripture speaks of the Spirits of just Men made perfect and of the Soul of the Thief being in Paradise that day he died and of the Spirit of every Man returning to God at Death to be dealt with according to what they did in the Body and this he says is enough to blunt the edge of his present Objection And hereunto I reply That what he hath said concerning the Spirits of just Men made perfect hath before been answered and so hath that of the Thief 's Soul being in Paradise that day and proved to be invalid Testimonies of the Souls Seperate Subsistence His Third Testimony of the Spirits returning to God seems to be mis-recited for the Text doth not say it returns to God to be dealt with according to what they did in the Body which Words he adjoins with as much Confidence to the Text as if they might be there found written and were part of the Text it self so as unwary and unexamining Readers might soon be mistaken thereupon In what manner and to what purpose Solomon might intend this return of Souls to God hath been before disputed and I still confide that Mr. W. and his Party will not be able to prove that these words of Solomon intended the Souls of dead Persons going before God to Judgment as here he hath without any hesitation deliver'd it And therefore I conclude that his Answer hath very little blunted the edge of our present Objection I observe it as an Art in Disputing that it may be advantageous to grant in an easie and transient fashion such Objections as Men find themselves utterly unable to answer and I think Mr. W. hath used this Art in transiently granting the first part of this Objection viz. That the Scriptures do frequently refer the expectation of Rewards or Punishments after this Life and unto the Resurrection and the Day of Judgment and whereas I have said before that there is no mention in Scripture of such Expectations at or soon after the time of Mens Deaths he gives us here three of the most pregnant Instances which he could find in Scripture for proving that Rewards and Punishments are bestowed by God at the time of Mens Deaths but the force of these Instances hath before been obstructed by those Answers which have been severally given them in their proper places I am not without some Temptation of drawing out of the Scripture a Catalogue of such Texts as do with great Evidence and Strength set forth and prove that the time of the Resurrection and the Day of Judgment are not alone the principal but the only times whereat or wherein Recompences future to this Life are warrantably and certainly to be expected by Mankind but because I have said much and quoted divers Texts of Scripture upon that Subject before and am now willing to save my self and my Reader the tedium of such a long Repetition I will refer the Examiners of this Objection unto those Texts which have before been quoted to that purpose and to such others as themselves may meet with upon the perusal of the Scripture And with this round number of Ten the Objections which I make against Mr. W's Opinion out of Scripture shall be finished Yet I farther intend to add thereunto two or three Objections against Mr. W's Opinion derived from Natural Reason and the Experiences of Men. And first I begin from the Nature and Composition of the Humane Person and thereupon I observe that there are three things principally and absolutely necessary for the Subsistence and Life of the Humane Person viz. Blood Breath and Nutriment and thereupon do agree with Moses that the Life the Animals is in the Blood or that the Blood is the Life thereof whose inflamed Particles are the Spirits which act the Person and as well the Head as the Members so long as Life continues in the Body Next to which the Breath hath a Principal and absolutely necessary Faculty and Power of fanning and inflaming such Particles of the Blood as are imployed in every part of the Body and for refrigerating the internal parts of the Body with a perpetual Refreshment which keeps the Paristaltick Motion always in action amongst the inward and most vital parts of the Body whence daily Experience assures us that by stopping of the Breath but for some few Moments the Spirit of Life in Man becomes absolutely suffocated and extinguished and without Breath no Humane Art or Power can prolong the Life of the Person or other Animal whatsoever Concerning Nutriment it is only so far necessary to the Life of the Creature as the Blood thereof wastes and is consumed by the Circular Continual Motion and the Inflammation thereof In some long continuing and weakening Diseases the Motion of the Blood hath been so weak and the Inflammation thereof
so faint as that in such Persons there need no Nutriment in a long time for restoring the waste of Blood in such Persons but in ordinary ways of living our Experience assures us that if the daily waste of Blood be not supplied by Nourishment sutable to the Consumption thereof the Person must diminish in his Strength and Vigor and finally perish and die for want of such sustenance as should restore the stock of the wasted Blood and furnish the several parts with such moisture and refreshment as thereunto shall be absolutely needful and required We find an Instance of this Condition in David's Acts when he came to Ziklag his Servants found an Egyptian in the Field starved and at the next Door to Death for he had neither eaten nor drink in three Days and Nights before but upon administring fresh Sustenance to his wasted Spirits they became restored in great measure to their former Activity which I conceive happen'd to him as it may do in the case of a Lamp whose Oyl is spent and exhausted the Light will first grow dim and be ready to fail and be extinguished but being refreshed by more Oyl administred to it it will soon recover the Flame and Light which it had before The Text says When this Man had eaten the Spirit came again to him In like manner it is related of Sampson his being ready to die for thirst but as soon as he had drank of the Water which issued from his Jaw-bone that Text says his Spirit came again and he revived I conceive those Places to be parallelled with that Text of 1 Kings 17.22 Where in raising the Widows Son Elijah prayed Lord let this Childs Soul come into him again and the Spirit of the Child came into him again and he revived I conceive that the coming again of these three Spirits as they are express'd in very like words so they were all of a like nature the Spirits of the two former were not quite extinguished as that of Elijah's Child was but upon the revival of them all it is said their Spirits came to them again which I think may signifie the rekindling or recontinuing of that Flame of Life in their Blood which we call the Vital Flame and whereby the Humane Machine or Microcosme is put in motion and acted so long as it pleases God to continue Life unto it in the Case of the Egyptian at Ziklag we may perceive that presently upon the coming of his Spirit to him again the Activity and Use of all his Sensations returned instantly to him so as he could not only move hear see c. but his Understanding and Memory became apt and ready for Service as before whence I think we may reasonably collect that the Original of Acting and Understanding may proceed from the Activity and Motion of the Blood and the inflamed particles thereof which together with Life and Motion produce the Sensations Affections Understandings and Memories of Men. And having thus propounded and in some measure proved that Blood Breath and Nutriment are all absolutely necessary for continuance of the Life of Man so as he cannot long abide in Life without the continual assistance of every one of them I pretend to apply them to those different sorts of Spirits about which we are now disputing and therein if we shall proceed and make application of them to the Extraneous telligent and Seperate Spirit which Mr. W. maintains to be the Spirit of Life in Man I think we must find that all these three Natural Incidents to the life of Man have no coherence at all with such a Spirit but are very incongruous with the Being and Nature of it because that forasmuch as we know concerning the nature of such a Spirit Nutriment seems not to be necessary for the Subsistence thereof and much less do Breath and Blood or the Spirits of it seem pertinent or appliable to the nature of such an Intelligent Spirit and therefore if such a Spirit were truly the Spirit of Life in Man the three materials before mentioned as natural and inseperable Incidents to the continuance of Man's Life should not be so absolutely necessary for that design as by daily Experience they are found to be but if we shall now turn to the other side and make Application to that Superfine yet Material and Unintelligent Spirit which before hath been described we must find that there will be a true and real necessity of the three before-named Natural Incidents for the Support Supply and Continuance of its Activity and of Life its self so as by this Hypothesis the Phaenomena of nature in Man are more clearly answered and may be better solved than can be done by applying these Natural Incidents to a Seperable Intelligent and Extraneous Spirit in Man and I therefore conclude it more probable that the Spirit of Life in Man is rather Material and Unintelligent than that it is an Intelligent and Seperable Spirit such as Mr. W. and his Partakers maintain the same to be A Second Objection from Nature against Mr. W's Opinion I raise from the further Consideration of the Humane Person and more particularly from the Bodily Organs thereof and say thereupon that God or Nature hath so framed and fitted every one of them as they are wonderfully apt for those Offices which they were intended to perform of which for Example we may name the Eyes and Tongue which are admirably framed and fitted for their several Offices so as the Spirit of Life is by means of these Instruments able to perform such Actions as Nature intended them for and yet the Perfection or Defects in those performances seem not so much to depend upon that Spirit which informs and acts them as upon the structure soundness and perfection of the Organs themselves Without such Organs the Man can neither see nor speak but when the Organs are sound and perfect the owner can use them as perfectly as any other can ordinarily do but if there be any Obstruction in the Optick Nerves or in those which act the Tongue the Spirit of Life in the Owner can act them no otherways than they are still capable of for the Tongue will lisp stammer stop struggle and blutter do the Man and his Spirit of Life what they can for the rectification of such Infirmities and so will the Eyes be purr-blind double or treble sighted weak dim and blindish do the Owner and his Spirit of Life what they can for the Recovery and rectifying of them so as the Spirit of Life can act the Organ to no higher a Degree of perfection than the soundness and rectitude of the Organ it self will bear nor act it in other manner than it is fit and capable at that time to be acted and I conceive that the principal perfection of the faculties of Secing and Speaking lies more in the sound State and activity of the Organ than in the power and energy of that Spirit which acts them and yet
convince us that divers Brutes attain to as great Perfection in the use of such Senses as the Generations of Men do and some Brutes exceed the Humane Powers in the Practice and Use of some of these Senses And if we then consider the Humane Affections of Lust Wrath and Fear we may find that the Brutal Nature is as full of these Affections as the Humane and that the Beasts have them in as great vigor violence and perfection as Men have them And lastly if we rise to consider the Power of Intellect we may find that Brutes injoy the true and real use of Phantasie Choice and Memory so far as is Needful for the well being of their Natures tho' in a weak measure and very low degree if we compare such Faculties of theirs with such as may be found in that kind amongst the highest ranks of Men or such of them as have attain'd to great degrees of Improvement in their Faculties of that kind It may be that if we shall compare the most Stupid amongst Men with the most Sensitive amongst Brutes as with the Elephant Ape Horse Dog and Fox it may be found that some of these Creatures are more docible and may be made more knowing than some of the most stupid amongst Men so that by their Teachers Eye or Continuance or their Voices they have been made to act and perform divers things which caus'd Admiration in the Beholders and such as it would be hard to teach the stupidest Persons amongst Men to perform in such manner as Beasts have been known to do them There appears between the Brutal and Humane Nature and Composition very great differences and that the Men have many advantages above the Beasts in those Parts and Members which appear outwardly to the Eye First in the Members of their Hands and Tongue and the genuine and natural uses of them both and next in the natural and upright posture of the Humane Body and the placing of the Head thereupon all which give great advantages to the Humane above the Brutal Bodies and gives them such capacities of acting as are deny'd to all Brutes whatsoever and it seems we may reasonably suppose that there may be the like great advantages in the inward Organs of Humane above those of the Brutal Heads and whereby the Humane are made more capable of performing the great Duties of their Intellect then the Brutal Creatures have Capacities to do and yet we find these Differences do not hinder the persons of Men from being ranked amongst the Animal Kind the prime Ingredients into whose Composition are the same Flesh Blood Bones Breath Nerves Arteries Veins Joynts Sinews and Members which go to the Composition of them both And Experience may convince us that the Lives of them all are in their Blood or that Blood is the life of them and by the particles of such Blood inflamed called the Spirits of their Blood they are all inlivened and acted alike altho' by the Structure of their Bodies and the Perfection of their Organs to some purposes the Humane Nature have very great advantages above the Brutal and these are the main Differences which I have yet been able to find between the two Natures before-mentioned and I am hence so far convinced as to conceive that there is no such great and apparent Differences between that sort of the Spirit of Life which acts the Brutes and that sort of Spirit which acts the Men as heretofore hath generally been believed but the Spirits which act Life in them both are of a more similar Nature than Men have formerly imagined them to be and from this Argument I am ready to conclude that the Humane Spirit of Life hath a great agreement with that of the Brutal and therefore I think it more probable to be a Material Unintelligent Spirit than that it should be an Intelligent created extraneous Spirit made by God for each Man at the time of his Procreation and injected into the Embrion at some incertain or unknown time which yet remains unperceived or undeclared to us and which if it shall be made better known may deserve to be further examined amongst us Upon these three last Arguments drawn from the Animal Nature and Humane Experience my first doubtings concerning the Seperate Subsistence of souls were founded after I had held out in the old Opinion until my Age of Sixty Three-Years and my doubting caus'd me to search the Scriptures concerning that Point and there I found no Concurrence of Scripture Texts which were brought as Evidences thereof and not so much as one Text that was clear in the affâ—mâ—nce of it except that of St. Matthew's saying Are not able to kill the Soul Next that neither that Saying nor any other Text produced for proof of that Point had a principal 〈…〉 teach or prove the Souls Seperate Subsistence 〈…〉 the Texts produced for the proof of that Opinion 〈…〉 livered in a collateral manner and are brought â— by without Mens being able to make it appear 〈…〉 of the Texts produced to that purpose did 〈…〉 tend to declare or prove the now questioned 〈…〉 the Souls Seperate Subsistence I found also that all their Texts from whence the consequential proofs which they make are drawn might receive reasonable and I think sufficient Answers which I have endeavour'd to apply to them in this Treatise and have satisfy'd my own Understanding in them all and how far they will appear reasonable to the Readers thereof I am willing to leave to such Experimental Tryals as may be made upon the Judgments of such Persons as may happen to peruse the Treatise and to the Candor and Indifferent Censure of such Readers I am willing to submit my self and all that I have spoken in this Treatise and concerning this Subject AFter Mr. Wadsworth 's finishing the Treatise before considered he super-adds thereunto and subjoyns to it a Declamatory Discourse which he intitles Faith's Triumph over the Fears of Death which is not much less in bulk than his Treatise before answered Vpon the Perusal thereof I find his Triumphal Arch principally founded the one end of it upon the Souls Seperate Subsistence and the other end upon the Souls going to Heaven immediately after Death both which I conceive to be Precarious Assumptions I am sure not granted by his Opposers and I believe not sufficiently proved by his Arguments I find that in this Discourse he repeats a third time the four Texts of Scripture which he thinks do most strongly prove his Opinion viz. Solomon's return of the Spirit to God who gave it St. Matthew's Are not able to kill the Soul St. Luke 's Parable of Dives and his Relation of the Thiefs Conversion on the Cross I acknowledge my self averse from making often Repetitions of the same things and therefore do refuse to follow his Example or Practice in this Point but rather make choice to refer my Reader to such Answers as are before given to these Arguments in those
Intent thereof and even to have exterminated the same out of the Apprehensions and Memories of such Men. And hereupon I do again agree that it is very sutable to the Justice of God and his equitable Dealings with Men that there should be a distribution of Rewards and Punishments after this Life and I do with great Assurance believe that the same will fall out accordingly not bestowing those Rewards and Punishments upon Souls Subsisting in a State of Seperation from the Body but that rather as our Lord himself tells us John 6. Those who fear God and work Righteousness shall by Christ be raised up at the last Day in their full Compositum of Soul and Body and in their own Persons shall receive Rewards according to their Works done and their Faith professed in this World and that the like measure shalt be dealt to the Wicked at the Resurrection of the last Day whose Punishments shall be equally distributed to their Persons as is before said to be done in the case of the former Raised and Righteous Persons P. 156. The Doctor says He cannot but wonder that Plato having asserted God to be a Mind Divine and Incorporeal should contradict himself in affirming that Man's Soul was a Particle taken from the Substance of God himself he will not engulph himself in the Bottomless Sea of Difficulties concerning the Original and Extraduction of Man's Soul but he conceives the Soul cannot be produced from Matter because it is Immaterial but however it is plain that it hath its Beginning and Origine with the Body and yet being Incorporeal it is not capable of perishing with it P. 159. He confesses a great decay of Intellect in Mens very old Age but says that Decay grows from the weakness of the Fancy and Imagination and the Organs thereof and not from the Decays of the Intellect or Soul it self Answering I say it seems rather to grow from the Heaviness and Unaptness of the Blood of old People to be so vigorously Inflamed and Acted as it used to be in their younger Years and greater strength of their Bodies and Concoction P. 173. The Doctor says It is not necessary that when at Death the Soul is breathed into the Air that the Air should be thereby Animated because then it should act without the Mediation of any Organs at all but he asserts that neither in the Air nor any other Body whatever can the Soul either meet with or create those Dispositions that are requisite to Vital Information P. 174. He says The Soul makes use of the Vital Spirits as Servants for the effecting of Life Sense and Motion I say Nature makes use of them for the effecting Life Sense Motion Understanding Memory and all other Powers of Cogitation whatsoever P. 180. The Doctor says As to the Particular or Manner of the Souls Knowledge after Death I remit you to Sir K. Digby's sublime Speculations concerning the condition of a Seperate Soul in which tho' you may not meet with such Satisfaction as you expect yet you will meet with more than I can now give you without repeating his Notions To this I answer that I have perused those Notions without meeting with any Satisfaction at all in them P. 183. The Doctor says That the Cement which joyns the Body and Soul together is the Blood especially the Spiritual and most refin'd part thereof and he quotes a Saying of Critius Sentire Maxime Proprinus esse Anima atque hoc in esse propter sanguinis Naturam P. 184. He says The Blood is the first pact of the Body that is generated and moved and the Soul is excited and kindled first from the Blood and the Blood is that in which the Operations Vegitative and Sensitive do first manifest themselves The Doctor says That he thinks it likely that the Soul having its first and perhaps principal Residence in the Blood and that Blood by Circulation flowing like a River of living Water round the Body penetrating into and irrigating the Substance of all the Parts and at the same time communicating to them both Heat and Life so as the Soul having its principal Residence in the Blood in respect thereof may very well be conceived to be Tota in toto tota in qualibet parte so as there is an Intimate presence of the Soul in the Blood and by that means a Conjunction of them together 169. The Dr. says That in the Progression towards Death the Vital Heat or Flame being either almost suffocated by Putrefaction of the Blood the only Fewel by which it is maintained in Diseases or exhausted by old Age goes out like a Lamp by degrees ceasing first to enliven or irradiate the parts that are most remote from the Focus or Heart and then failing in its conserving Influence more and more till at length suffering an Extinction in the very Heart as it were in the Socket it leaves that also Cold and Lifeless so that Death is as an Extinction only of the Vital Flame not of the Soul I say That it is an Extinction of that Vital Flame which I conceive to be the Soul or Spirit or the first Principal of Life and Motion in the Person I think that by the Doctor 's Words in this last Quotation he seems fully to agree with what I have often repeated that the total Extinction of the Vital Flame in the Blood is the Death of the Person and the very thing which turns that which was the living Body into a dead Carcass whence he says That Death is an Extinction of the Vital Flame and yet denies this to be an extinguishment of the Soul whence it seems to me that he was resolved to maintain the Subsistence of the Soul after the death of the Person altho' the Nature and Reason which he pretends to follow convinced him not so to do or that he found any natural need of his so doing but because he thought it might be prov'd by Scripture and was maintain'd by the Divines That the Soul of Man had a Seperate Subsistence after death of the Person and therefore was Immortal and that he stood so perswaded from Scripture Grounds he testifies Pag. 185. where he says That the Soul is an Immortal Substance and that its Immortality is not only credible by Faith or upon Authority Divine but also demonstrable by Reason or the Light of Nature From these Words I collect That his Belief of the Souls Immortality was grounded first upon Faith and Divine Authority as he thought and being thus fully perswaded of the Truth of that Opinion he set himself on work to maintain it by such Deductions as he was able to make from the Principles of Nature and Reason his Performances wherein have before been examined and shewn not be of so great weight as he perhaps conceived them to be The Treatise now examined was publish'd so long ago that I doubt before this time his Flame of Life hath been extinguish'd or that he may not be